Not sure if any of you have ever heard the word “Dis-nerd”, it’s a combination of Disney & nerd – it’s what I call someone who remembers facts or figures, history, interesting stories, trivia, etc about Disney.

I jokingly call myself that from time to time. Sometimes when you are at Disney with friends or family you can’t even help but spurt out all kinds of info – at least that’s a problem that I have, so after a while, they will usually say “how do you know all this stuff”, and I just usually will say “I’m a Dis-nerd, a Disney nerd, I can’t help it”.

But who better to show folks the ins and outs of Walt Disney World? I can’t think of anyone better than someone who really loves all things Disney. And for anyone who loves Disney that much, it’s hard to hold in your excitement and when is there a better time to slather on that Disney knowledge on your less informed friends and family than when you are actually at Walt Disney World.

If you are reading my blog, chances are *you* might be the Disney nerd in your group of friends or in your family. You know things like how many lanterns are hanging from the Liberty Tree. Or that the Liberty Bell in Liberty Square was actually cast from the same exact mold as the real Liberty Bell! Or that the castle isn’t really made of bricks. That inside the Winnie the Pooh ride, there is a picture of Mr. Toad handing over the deed to Owl. And there is a Mr. Toad in the pet cemetery outside of the Haunted Mansion! You know about Hidden Mickeys. You know that Walt Disney didn’t live long enough to see his Florida Project completed, he died six years prior to the opening of the Magic Kingdom.

One of the best experiences I’ve had is going on some of the private tours that Walt Disney World offers. I highly recommend the Keys to the Kingdom tour at Magic Kingdom. These are great, a lot of fun, and you probably will learn some knew stuff plus you can ask the tour guide questions too. And if you aren’t a Disney nerd yet, you might just catch the Disney bug on one of these tours.

Do you love Disney trivia? What are some of the things that have interested you about Disney?

Looking for healthier alternatives at Walt Disney World? You can usually find salmon on the menu at most places. At Artist Point a dish like this (below) will run about $40. Unfortunately, the side dish here changes with the seasons, and the bed of greens/arugula wasn’t a great choice for a $40 dinner. Looking back now, we should have asked for an alternative side dish, and I’m sure they would have given a choice of something else.

Artist Point Salmon – Artist Point Restaurant Wilderness Lodge

This meal is from Columbia Harbor House and is about $13, for the price, it’s pretty decent. You can ask for double broccoli if you do not want the couscous, get your extra dose of vitamins!

Salmon, Couscous, and Broccoli – Columbia Harbor House

The salmon from Sunshines Seasons, is also priced about $13, it comes with green beans. The sauce is made from tomato and onion and it went well with the salmon. You could choose to get plain if you prefer. Overall, this was a really nice quick service meal.

Sunshine Seasons Salmon, The Land Pavilion Epcot

This last example is from ABC Commissary. The portion seems a little small on the fish, but the whole salad was filling. I wasn’t hungry after eating the whole thing. Fish was nicely done for quick service. The dressing was a little too tangy. This one cost about $12. As with all Disney menus, you may find they change the menu and switch up the dish. At ABC Commissary they now have an Asian salad with choice of protein, so it’s going to look different than this one here.

Salmon Quinoa Salad – ABC Commissary Hollywood Studios

(from my disneyforaday.wordpress.com blog)

I recommend trying the quick service meals, as they are portioned decently and priced a lot lower than the table service meals. While they may not be gourmet – they certainly are better than average fried junk food.

Ever been faced with deciding whether or not to ride on certain rides? I think a lot of people are faced with a fear of certain rides, roller coasters come to mind, perhaps the Tower of Terror? Soarin’? I think this is still common among a lot of adults, it’s not just children at all.

I’ve had a really bad time on some rides, in particular Kumba at Busch Gardens pretty much ruined my desire to go on any type of coaster at all. My head got bashed from side to side on the safety harness bars. It was horrible.

I made the mistake of going on Primeval Whirl at Animal Kingdom. I was scared, the ride spun so much and I felt like I was being pushed out of the seat while simultaneously being squeezed to death.

A while back we tried Soarin’. I had such anxiety before going on the ride, while on it I felt uncomfortable in the seat, like I was not seated securely enough. While I was glad that I did ride on it, I did not feel like it was something I would like to do again anytime soon.

Since then I’ve went on some “kiddie” rides and enjoyed them, like Aladdin’s Carpets, Flying Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer and even the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! The Barnstormer is only about a 63 second ride, some parts are a little rough, but I laughed a lot and had a smile when I got off the ride, so that’s good. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is about a 2 minute ride and was pretty smooth, with some G forces around the bends, the ride went fast – slow – fast – slow, and was fun, also was smiling as it pulled into the station.

I have had conversations with others about which types of rides they like or don’t, and it is not uncommon at all for someone to be apprehensive about certain rides. Some friends don’t like heights, some don’t like things that spin in circles, some don’t like fast rides, some don’t like inversions, or drops, or too much movement. For a lot of people it’s not really a fear, per se, of the ride, it’s more about how the ride effects them, like dizziness, nausea, pain or discomfort. It’s okay if you don’t want to ride something, chances are – you aren’t the only one. For instance, Star Tours is just too jerky for my taste.

Luckily, Disney has a variety of rides and shows to suite most anyone’s sensibilities, and if you feel like you might want to get out of your comfort zone you can always ask others about their ride experience. These days you can even watch YouTube videos of most rides – this is a great, safe, way to experience the essence of a ride without any of the negative side effects.

Is there a ride that you just won’t go on? Ever conquered a fear of a certain ride?

Atmosphere. While the place was nice and new, I liked some aspects of the modern design, but not others. There is an industrial feel to it that makes me feel uncomfortable. We had to dine in the bar area because it was too late for regular dinner. Their bar area isn’t designed well, most of the seating is on small hard wood stools around small high top tables, the stool was uncomfortable and slightly unstable, considering they just opened the restaurant in the last couple months, those chairs shouldn’t feel rickety. The late night menu consisted of sushi and appetizers mostly.

Prices. Some of the pricing is downright shocking. There are things on the menu for crazy/stupid high prices. Alcohol was definitely overpriced. This is not a place I would want to go to order sushi dinner and sake. A three ounce pour of sake was $12?! Most house sake is usually in the $10 for about 8 ounces. So at that price $12 for 3 ounces which is $4/ounce, 8 ounces would be comparable to $32. That is just outright ridiculous. We can easily go through 4 (10 oz.) bottles of sake at dinner with friends, so at a reasonable place also on Disney property that would be $40 (and our local place only charges $7.50 per 8 ounce carafe), at Morimoto Asia that would be $128 equivalently. They are pricing their sake like it’s hard liquor. No thanks. We asked if there was a house sake, and the waitress said that was the house brand. In other words, I won’t be having sake with sushi here, and that is pretty lame.

Steamed Chicken Dumplings – 4 per order $10

Food. Chicken Dumplings – skip it, for $10 for 4 dumplings, it wasn’t worth it. I’d guess it was the same for the pork or vegetable dumplings as well. The dipping sauce was tangy, I think it was a combination of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. These dumplings seemed like what I can buy at my local Asian Grocery, which I have made at home in a steamer basket at had similar results. I was hoping these would have been something more special. We like the chicken potstickers at Nine Dragons in Epcot better.

The sushi, I would recommend trying a roll or two, they were good. Portion was small-ish, about 6 pieces on most, some were 5 like the Soft Shell Crab roll. Overall the sushi tasted good, fresh. The wasabi seemed stronger than most places. They offer tempura crunch for a $2 up-charge, and they do offer white or brown rice for the roll. We stuck with white. I think I’ll probably go to Tokyo Dining instead since their sushi is just as good, cheaper, and their sake is also better priced. (Plus Epcot has fireworks at night, so that is a bonus.)

Service. Although eager to please, the service was not top notch. There were a lot of mistakes made. Lack of communication or common sense being the main source of all of the problems. Mistakes with sushi presentation, separate orders were just plated all together. Despite the lack of customers at this late hour, our service seemed extremely slow. Our bills were also made out incorrectly, it took 3 times to straighten it out and each time took about 5-10 minutes, and I’m not even sure if the first two tickets were voided properly. I’m going to have to check our credit card, which is a hassle. When a customer has to go through such hassle to get a bill corrected multiple times something isn’t right.

Overall. I would go back again to try a regular dinner service, however I’m my expectations have been considerably lowered, and my overall excitement about eating here is gone. Curiosity satisfied.

I had a bunch of left over boiled broccoli from dinner a couple nights ago and knew we probably weren’t going to eat it unless it got used in something else. I thought quiche, but I didn’t feel like going through the trouble of making a crust. I’m not an expert but as far as I can tell the Spanish frittata is similar to crustless quiche. Whatever it is called, I knew basically what it would look like and taste like, you can’t really go wrong with butter, mozzarella cheese, eggs, broccoli, spring onions. By using milk instead of heavy cream, the end result would be less fattening.

I found a recipe but changed it to make it easier to prepare. Frankly, I didn’t feel like making sauteed onions and broccoli mix, that step would have added a lot more time and a dirty frying pan. You can use whatever kind of cheese you want. I used a square pyrex baking dish. I would spray the pyrex or pan with some cooking spray to keep it from sticking.

Cook at 350 degrees for about 40-50 minutes, check for doneness and remove from oven.

Be careful, this dish stays hot for a while after taking out of the oven. It needs to cool a bit before eating.

This is great for breakfast, it would be really good in a breakfast burrito. You can add it just as it is, add your favorite hot sauce, I was even thinking some crunchy Frito topping would be good on this.

This one was made with shredded cheese and the cheese mixed in better. Both ways were delicious.

The changes to re-brand Downtown Disney into Disney Springs began in April of 2013. As Disney Springs is still under construction going on 3 years now, and construction is stated as continuing through 2016, this area of Disney has been an absolute nightmare. For a regular like myself who used to enjoyed going to Downtown Disney to eat or to shop, the major pains started when they closed down the back parking lots and walk-ways. Parking, construction, and huge crowds have exacerbated the growing pains of what is to finally become Disney Springs.

This concept art is majorly flawed in that it doesn’t represent the reality of what it’s like to be in Disney Springs. The amount of people on any given day is much higher than you could ever want to deal with. The weekends are even worse, and holidays – forget about it. Obviously, they are picturing the idealized view of what they imagine or at least what they want the public to imagine what Disney Springs is supposed to be.

Limited parking is a huge turn-off. There are daily traffic jams from Bonnet Creek Parkway through Hotel Plaza Blvd, a distance of not more than 3 miles, that it takes up to an hour to move through one way. The parking garage that was supposed to be such a blessing has become a total nightmare, when it fills up – the traffic comes to a virtual halt. The only viable parking option has become the furthest lot – to the rear of La Nouba Theater, which leaves us in the predicament of having to walk a very long way, or wait for boat transportation.

Although there are new restaurants and shops, I feel like there is really nothing of value TO ME being offered right now, and sadly I don’t think that is going to change. I liked the Co-Op Marketplace, but it’s so hard to get in and out of Disney Springs when will I ever get the chance to shop there? We tried the Boathouse and it was a huge disappointment, we were seated 45 minutes after our reservation time, and our dinner took nearly an hour and a half – not due to our fault, their service was extremely slow. The food was ok at best and I’m being too polite about that, it was like a C letter grade, but they charge ridiculously high prices (F for value and I’m used to Disney prices!); I can seriously get a better and more satisfying meal at Chili’s for about half as much money, and that’s what we’ve done in the last two years, rather than eating at Disney Springs, we’ve eaten off Disney property while outside the parks.

I just have this feeling like this whole Disney Springs conversion is just hype with no real substance, after trying the Boathouse I’m really wary. I am interested in trying Morimoto Asia because I love Japanese food, and the Jock Lindsay’s bar might be okay, but I haven’t been yet. All these other annoyances are keeping me from going. So this week they announced they are putting in a Sprinkles bakery cupcake machine – whoop dee doo. Like it’s worth two hours of hassle to schlep down there for that? Or for some overpriced grub or drinks?

Disney Springs also announced 30 more shops, like Sephora, Kate Spade, Lacoste, Oakley, and others – basically what you’d find in most high end malls. Which makes me ask, why? Why do we need or want luxury mall shops? I’m sure it’s because only the luxury stores will ever be able to afford the rent. Do people even buy stuff from those stores? Who drops $250 on a pair of sunglasses? (They put a Sunglass Hut inside Adventureland! Grr. And you know what – I’ve never seen anyone buy anything there.) Oh, and they have a shop dedicated to beards. We are in official hipster territory here.

I may be in the minority here, but everything about Disney Springs just screams -” pain in my a**”. It rubs me the wrong way like nails on a chalkboard. It was already annoying to have to wait thirty minutes to an hour to get an ice cream sundae from Ghirardelli before and there are never any tables available, now it seems like you have to fight past thousands of people do even get down to that side.

From an economic and re-vitalization standpoint it may be a triumph to Disney, it may be something they really wanted to achieve to compete with City Walk, so if that was their goal then I guess that is what they have done – because I HATE City Walk too. I have never liked feeling like a sardine, and I have tolerated it at the theme parks because that is just how it is, but in the theme parks it never felt like the outside world was crushing me, because the theme parks are isolated a bit from the “real world” and despite the crowdedness of the theme parks, you can usually find a quiet place to sit for a while.

At the end of the day, Disney Springs is still basically the same size that it ever was despite the addition of new restaurants and stores! It occupies the same basic footprint that it did, the land surrounding it is already developed, it is surrounded by water, roads, and parking lots. There were several large buildings that were left unused after the closure of Pleasure Island and those have already or will be converted into stores. With the exception of some new walkways, everything is basically on the same chunk of land. The biggest trick they ever played is that they are just cramming more people into a small space. Vertical parking – the parking garages are how they are managing to do this. People will just continue to flock in droves.

Where are the rest of the 500 people who should be in this drawing?

In the meantime, my priority should be to use my annual pass as much as possible and steer clear of Disney Springs, at least until they sort the traffic and parking situation.

I’m very curious about how other people feel about Disney Springs, please leave any questions or comments below. Thanks for reading.